Prague hosts Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei exhibit "Law of Journey"March 17, 2017 - 16:04 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The National Gallery in Prague opened "Law of the Journey" on Wednesday, March 15, the first solo exhibition of the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei in the Czech Republic, DW reports. The show, which will run through January 7, 2018, includes the artist's latest work, also called "Law of the Journey." His largest installation to date, it is a 70-meter-long (230-foot-long) inflatable boat with 258 oversized faceless refugee figures. The museum describes the exhibition as a "Multi-layered, epic statement on the human condition: an artist's expression of empathy and moral concern in the face of continuous, uncontrolled destruction and carnage." The location of the exhibition also holds its own dark historical charge: During World War II, the building of the National Gallery in Prague served as an assembly point for Jews before their deportation to the concentration camp in Terezín in 1939-1941. Ai has recently staged many large-scale installations inspired by the fate of migrants, covering, for example, the columns of Berlin's Konzerthaus with 14,000 orange life jackets from Lesbos. He also spent the last year visiting some 40 refugee camps and crossing points such as the US-Mexican and Turkish-Syrian borders, filming a documentary called "Human Flow" that will premiere in the summer of 2017. "There's no refugee crisis, but only human crisis… In dealing with refugees we've lost our very basic values," Ai said in the Prague exhibition's presentation. The Chinese artist is currently based in Berlin and also has a studio in Beijing. Photo: picture-alliance/dpa/CTK/R. Vondrous Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Czech-Armenian military cooperation discussed in Yerevan A delegation led by the Director General for the Industrial Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic visited Armenia. U.S. welcomes efforts to define Armenia-Azerbaijan border The United States welcomes efforts to define the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, says Vedant Patel. Biden honors resilience of Armenian people on April 24 U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a statement on the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Ex-Karabakh leader moved to solitary confinement cell in Baku, his son says David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. |